Definition
A characteristic of an avionics system, such as a Synthetic Vision Guidance System (SVGS), in which the imagery and information displayed are generated from stored digital data — including terrain, obstacle, airport, and navigation databases — rather than from real-time sensor inputs. The accuracy and currency of the display depend entirely on the integrity and revision date of the loaded databases.
Plain English
The picture you see on the screen is built from stored digital maps and data, not from a live camera or radar. If the stored data is wrong or out of date, the display will be wrong too.
Context Anchor
Seen in synthetic vision guidance system discussions, especially when describing how the system creates runway and terrain displays.
Derivation
From 'database' (an organized collection of stored digital information) plus 'driven' (powered or controlled by). The phrase highlights that the system's output is controlled by the stored data, not by live sensing.
Why Pilots Care
Database-driven systems can show terrain and obstacles ahead even when sensors have no direct line of sight, but they require current database updates for accuracy.
Analogy
It is like a car navigation map: the road picture comes from stored map data and your current position, not from a camera looking at the road.
Intuition Check
Database driven does not mean the database is physically driving the aircraft. It means stored data is controlling what the system displays or computes.
Example Sentence 1
Because the SVGS is database driven, the crew checked the terrain and obstacle database revision date during preflight.
Example Sentence 2
Before flight the pilot verified the navigation database was up to date, knowing the guidance functions were database driven.